Undergrads Engaging in Inquiry

Graduate Course on Intellectual Entrepreneurship

2008-12-05T04:58:00.000-08:00

In addition to being an internationally known researcher on aesthetic education and qualitative research methods, my friend, Prof. Liora Bresler, is working on intellectual entrepreneurship.

She's teaching a graduate course this spring on this new area. Read below for more information:

Spring 2009
C & I 507/590

Academic Intellectual Entrepreneurship: Vision, Team Leading, and Creativity
Tuesdays, 11-1
Liora Bresler, Instructor

The overall goal of the course is to develop an entrepreneurial perspective of the role of faculty in academia. The three components of the academic endeavor--research, teaching, and service--will be conceptualized as highly entrepreneurial activities.

Building on their individual passions and strengths, the course will empower students (prospective faculty) to experience each of these three components of academia along the three entrepreneurial axes: recognize opportunities, acquire resources, and create a new entity of value. Specifically, the course will address the following: 1. Expansion of contents, forms, and audiences in teaching; 2. Choosing research questions for significance and impact, garnering means for effective execution, and creating avenues to bring the fruits of research to society; and 3. Refocusing of academic service as a vehicle for the building and nurturing of intellectual community.

The course will have three major components: 1. Theoretical foundations of the field of entrepreneurship with a slant toward inter-disciplinary environment, creativity, and intellectual entrepreneurship; 2. Case studies of successful entrepreneurs in academia; 3. Individual student capstone projects of developing an “academic entrepreneurial plan”. This course is seen as a part of the education of doctoral students, in preparing them to be resourceful, dynamic faculty, responsive to the needs and opportunities in the field, drawing on their visions, creativity, and skills, to create new endeavors.

* for more information about the course, contact Liora Bresler at liora@uiuc.edu

Inquiry – Consequences and intersecting perspectives

2008-08-14T14:37:00.000-07:00

A recent cartoon from Baby Blues (Kirkman & Scott) provides some interesting perspectives on inquiry in action. The first panel has young Zoe helping her younger brother, Hammie, into the house and saying that Hammie had stepped on a thistle barefoot in a vacant lot; Hammie of course is very vocally expressing the pain caused by the experience. The second panel shows mom saying that the vacant lot is full of thistles and asking him where were his shoes. Hammie replies that he had taken them off. The third panel shows mom asking him why he had taken them off, to which Hammie’s reply is “To see if it hurts to step on a thistle.” The fourth panel has mom releasing a deep sigh with her head hung down, while Hammie observes that she is acting like it was all his fault.

Hammie employed the inquiry process to perfection, first asking a question about whether a thistle hurts when stepped on barefoot. Whether or not someone had previously told him it would hurt was not relevant to his drive for self-discovery. His investigation into the question, that is, stepping on the thistle, created for him a very personalized answer to the question. He showed the initiative to undertake that inquiry on his own. His discussion with mom brought her into an intersection with his inquiry process, resulting in two divergent paths of reflection. For mom, it probably was wondering what sort of kid would be so dumb as to purposefully subject themselves to pain. Hammie, on the other hand was perfectly happy with the result of his inquiry. The pain is temporary, the knowledge lasts forever. He no longer would have to take someone else’s word about the thistle hurting. He had personalized the learning from his inquiry. His subsequent reflection, expressed in the last panel, related more to his response to his mom’s interpretation of the success or failure of his inquiry, and worrying about why he might be to blame for her misinterpretation of his learning.

How often in higher education do we allow our students to take the level of risk where they might meet with negative consequences? Not often. We are, appropriately, concerned for their physical and mental safety. As teachers we need to try to be more aware of how the student interprets their successes and failures, and help them reflect on their outcomes rather than encouraging them to worry about whether their learning from inquiry matches with our perceived expectations as teachers. Did Hammie’s mom miss a teachable moment? It is not easy for us to fully appreciate someone else’s inquiry when we only intersect with their inquiry cycle at one brief point, in this case after a moment of discussion. We need to listen carefully and the inquirer needs to communicate their experience effectively. This is another reason why shaping the student’s habits of mind and building the student’s cognitive skills allows them to better communicate about their inquiry. But it also points to the value of shared inquiry, working in teams, collaborative learning, etc, where the collective experiencing of a focused inquiry provides additional richness of the learning outcomes.

For another example of this intersection of someone with one of Hammie’s inquiry processes, see Thursday, July 10 2008 at www.babyblues.com (see Archive).

Habits of Mind

2008-07-24T09:07:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about maintaining the scholarly learning community as part of the Undergrads Engaging in Inquiry program this past year has been the opportunity to discuss ideas and thoughts with others. On a campus like Illinois, we typically have limited opportunities to discuss teaching and learning with our colleagues. The UEI discussions this past year provided a regular venue for those interactions. We hope to continue providing those opportunities for discussions this coming year, primarily through the program that Ann Abbott is developing.

Sometimes someone will say something or use a phrase that resonates with me and helps solidify or provide structure to my often poorly structured thoughts and ideas. In some of the discussions about inquiry and how we use it regularly in learning, Cheelan Bo-Linn used a phrase that caught my attention. She referred to inquiry as a “habit of mind.” I have come to view the inquiry process as the mechanism by which we gain new knowledge. As such, the inquiry process is a mental habit. It is a normal, natural approach that our brain uses to acquire new knowledge or understanding. We are always reaching for new knowledge based on our existing knowledge, linking the new with what is already known. We ask our most productive questions based on existing knowledge. We intuitively seek out information resources as part of our investigation. We create conclusions, or new ways of thinking about something, or reinforce our existing views. We discuss our new creation of ideas or understanding, at least with ourselves, and often with others, whether through dialogue (with friends and colleagues) or examinations (in a class), always seeking feedback on how our created understanding fits with how others perceive things. And of course, we reflect, consider, cogitate, and let it roll around among the grey cells. For better or worse, that inquiry cycle results in something new built on the foundation of our pre-existing knowledge. These are nature, intuitive habits of mind.

If these habits of mind are natural, then do we need to teach them to our students? Another phrase that Cheelan has used suggests that the components of the inquiry cycle reflect a “repertoire of cognitive skills.” In undergraduate education, we tend to emphasize the skills of investigation and perhaps some minimal level of creativity. The other components of the inquiry process are underrepresented in our typical teaching efforts. We rarely challenge students to ask questions based on their lived experiences. We don’t ask them to be creative too often, either. Usually we ask them to reiterate the creations of someone else, whether it be the expert in the content, the author of the text book, or ourselves as transmitters of that content. Getting students to have productive discussions, informed but independent thoughts, and meaningful reflections takes time, as well as well constructed and thoroughly planned activities, requiring a very different approach to teaching than that in which many are experienced. Furthermore, if we were to let our students reflect upon their knowledge and learning – well goodness, they might actually start thinking outside the narrowly defined box that we call course content.

What if we were able to more fully represent the inquiry process throughout a student’s undergraduate program? Any given class or instructor would not necessarily have to integrate all components of the inquiry process in every course. Giving focus to different steps in the inquiry process, or different cognitive skills, in various courses cumulatively gives the student experience with each of the skills. Then exposing students to organized activities that embrace the complete inquiry process through one or more cycles may be achieved through what are referred to as capstone experiences or courses, internships, international learning experiences, and other experiences that promote learning outside of the traditional classroom. Students currently take advantage of those types of experiences, but do they gain full learning value from their efforts when they enter the experiences with an under-developed repertoire of cognitive skills? Do they know how to take full advantage of those habits of mind that they use so often in their everyday lives?

Integrated Learning and Peru

2008-07-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

Judy Sunderman recently has been talking to me about what she is calling “integrated learning.” A couple of her thoughts on this subject include: “Robert Kegan (1994) noted that most of us are in “over our heads” when it comes to modern problems. The way we have been taught to analyze and understand issues doesn’t prepare us for the disarray of complexities that characterize contemporary life. Our understanding is based on linear patterns within discipline-defined subjects which often elude innovative, nontraditional, and multilayered thinking.” And, “There are spotty and often isolated attempts by institutions to experiment with vehicles for learning that better support integrative thinkers and doers. These academic programs and experiences are aimed at providing students with sustained opportunities to explore a wide range of knowledge and make connections among seemingly disparate topics.”

I recently returned from a trip to Peru. We visited Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu, Puno and Lake Titikaka. Of course, Machu Picchu was the ultimate experience (I had to include a least one picture below). All-in-all the trip was very challenging in a number of ways, but in the end it was a trip of a lifetime.

Did I experience integrated learning during that trip? Lets consider the topic of altitude. Our trip experiences ranged from near sea-level (Lima) to over 13,000 feet (Lake Titikaka). Living in the flat-lands of central Illinois, not being in the best of shape, having some limited experiences skiing at higher elevations, and yes, getting older, all combined to make the issue of potential altitude sickness something of concern prior to the trip. Based on prior experience, I had only felt minor effects of skiing at higher altitudes, such as slight headaches, etc., so I did not expect to react too strongly. All the supporting information that I came across indicated that staying hydrated and taking it very easy initially would help. So, we created an approach to deal with the altitude that was consistent with those suggestions. And then landed in the Andes mountains to test our theories. Of course the best plans don’t always work. Travel fatigue and uncertain or modified schedules, along with the driving desire to make the most out of the opportunities of visiting these remarkable places (headache or not), combined to challenge our plans for thinking about how the altitude might affect us.

Here’s where the integration comes in. We continued learning as we experienced the altitude. We changed our behavior, slowing the speed of walking around and taking extra efforts to stay hydrated. We did undergo some limited metabolic adaptation in the short time we were in Peru. Each experience was associated with a different and new place that we had not previously visited, each one offering its own challenges. And most importantly, we survived the challenges, further cementing the relationship between what we thought we understood about altitude and how to avoid altitude sickness, the experiences encountered at the various altitudes, and the association of those experiences with other insights gained about the specific places we visited, such as its quite hot up on Machu Picchu in July in spite of it being their winter. We came away with an integrated knowledge where the theoretical was tempered through overcoming of personal challenges and was linked to meaningful individual experiences associated with unique environments. Theory integrated with individual experiences gained in special environments.

The challenge we face in the classroom is how to bring in opportunities that promote those individual experiences and those special environments to be integrated with the content that we feel is critical for our students. Given enough $$, can we take them all to visit a place like this?

No, but we should be able to do more in class than just lecture and show pretty pictures. Again, one of the goals that Ann Abbott has for her program this fall is to think about ways that we can integrate community perspectives, needs and goals into the classroom without having to send students physically out into the community. These in-class approaches should then complement the array of experiential learning opportunities that students may have for learning in an out-of-classroom environment. We should be able to, as Judy says, provide "students with sustained opportunities to explore a wide range of knowledge and make connections among seemingly disparate topics."

Still inquiring on inquiry

2008-07-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since myself or anyone else has contributed to this blog. The end-of-semester crunch is always followed by a period of tying up loose ends left over from the academic year, as well as traveling and catching up on domestic work at home (mowing the lawn, planning plants, etc). Now summer is more than half over and its time to start looking forward to the coming academic year. A number of activities are in the planning stages for the fall. A couple are described here.

Our core group from the Undergrads Engaging in Inquiry program last fall and spring is working closely with one of the new Distinguished Teacher Scholars for 2008-2009. Ann Abbott is an Assistant Professor in Spanish, Italian, & Portuguese. Ann is developing a series of summits and meetings that will offer unique opportunities for Illinois faculty and staff to meet with local community leaders. We look forward to getting a better understanding of how we might further prepare our students for their careers, as well as learning how we might strengthen interactions with the local community. Of course discussions of the inquiry process and how it may be integrated into student learning will be a consistent theme throughout that series of summits and meetings interactions, whether it be integrating inquiry into courses as a means of helping students learn about and understand community, or as the process by which we form collaborations with the community to achieve goals of mutual interest. More on Ann’s plans later.

Judy Sunderman, Andrea Bohn and I will be conducting the Animal Sciences Study Abroad Colloquium again this fall. This course is aimed at ACES students who have recently participated in some sort of international learning experience. The course is designed to encourage students to reflect on their international experiences, share their experiences with their classmates, and enhance their understanding of the full impact that their international experience has had on their personal and professional development. These students will then be provided several opportunities to use their special knowledge to influence how other students think about gaining international experiences, as well as how instructors think about integrating international perspectives into their courses. A tall order, indeed. Helping students understand how they have used the inquiry process to gain their experiences, and can use it to gain further value from their experiences, will be an ongoing theme during the semester. Although this course has mostly been animal science majors these past couple of years, we hope to make it a college-wide course in 2009.

Oops!

2008-05-04T15:29:00.001-07:00

Dear Walt, Prasanta, Judy and others,

Sorry about my previous post--I logged into blogger with the wrong log-in and ended up posting on this blog instead of my own (www.spanishandillinois.uiuc.edu). Sorry about that!

Ann

Can Interlangua.com Help Spansh Community Service Learning Students?

2008-05-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

Liz Girten did such a good job trying out and reviewing http://www.spanishpod.com/ that now I'm asking her to do the same with http://www.interlangua.com/. If another student is interested in doing the same, just let me know.

My SPAN 332 "Spanish & Entrepreneurship" students analyzed InterLangua on their midterm exam. The first question: Is Interlangua an example of social entrepreneurship as defined in Greg Dees' book "Enterprising Nonprofits." Last question: should Spanish & Illinois require students to use Interlangua. Students thought it was a great company with a lot of value, but when asked to vote with their wallets, the majority said no. Well, now Liz can try it and tell us what kind of value it would truly bring to our Spanish community service learning courses.

Depending on what Liz finds, I'd like to explore a "customized" service with Interlangua. They work with students and business people on medical Spanish, business Spanish, etc. Since Spanish community service learning students have specific needs, I think we could design some lessons specifically for them. The people at Interlangua are very enthusiastic and helpful, so we'll see.

Here are the questions that I would like Liz to answer in her review. If anyone else wants to use Interlangua (or already has) and wants to post a review here, that would be great!

1. Many students who do Spanish community-based learning have to talk on the phone and report having great difficulties with that. Would Interlangua help students develop telephone skills in Spanish?

2. Students report that Spanish community-based learning helps them develop "real-world" Spanish, not text-book Spanish. Many of the Latinos that they encounter in Champaign-Urbana come from Mexico and Guatemala. Would Interlangua help students become comfortable with a useful regional dialect?

3. Would the technology set-up be a problem for students?

4. Anything else you'd like to say would be welcome!

Liz is busy with final exams right now, so whenever she has a chance to actually use the services at www.interlangua.com, I'll post them here.

Ann

Thanks for the Thoughtful Response

2008-02-17T15:49:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to thank Walt and Lanny (see Comments at the end of my Post)for the well written and very thoughtful responses to my post. Walt and Lanny both raise very valid and important points about my comments; and more importantly they raise important points about the Inquiry Process.

Perhaps I am naive because I expected to increase my knowledge about inquiry as I surveyed the available research, but all I earned for the effort was more questions.
These two (Lanny and Walt as well as others in UEI) constantly push me to reflect more deeply and think on new levels about teaching and learning. It is exactly this kind of meaningful dialogue that keeps all of us coming back to the Faculty Learning Community: Undergraduates Engaging in Inquiry.

The scoop on Inquiry Learning - Thanks, Judy

2008-02-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

I have had several people ask me over the past few months about the research data that demonstrates that inquiry-based learning is in fact effective. On a personal level this seems a ridiculous question. Much of anything that we learn, either individually or collaboratively, occurs because we are employing an inquiry process, although this often may be occurring automatically. That is my way of viewing inquiry. So the prospect that inquiry-based learning could be anything but effective does not enter into my thinking at all.

Nevertheless, it is appropriate to see where we are in terms of "sound data" supporting the value of inquiry learning. After hearing Peter Doolittle test the bogus-icity of several commonly held pedagogical principles, I challenged Judy with the task of seeing what research was available. I want to thank her for an excellent overview in the previous blog entry and in last week’s discussion of the inquiry learning community. Here are a few of my thoughts relative to her observations.

First, the point is made about developing an accepted definition of inquiry on campus. A precise definition of inquiry would lead to exclusivity, rigidity, and narrowness of how we think about inquiry, not to mention discussions of semantics. I am less concerned that we define inquiry than that we lend ourselves readily to engaging in the process and encourage our students to routinely engage.

Second, Judy makes an excellent point about gauging effectiveness of employing the inquiry process based on typical learning endpoints such as content mastery, or even longer-range impacts such as critical thinking abilities, etc. My approach at the moment is based on the notion that engaging my students in the inquiry process with respect to course content results in their personalizing their learning about content and models the process for them to address challenges to their future thinking. I have come to think about the desired outcome of learning by my students not in the context of how much they remember, or even how many bits of information they may “know,” but rather can they engage in an intelligent and insightful conversation with someone who is an expert in the field. Can the student, even in the position of being a novice in a field (which most still are when they graduate), challenge an expert to reexamine the expert's own knowledge or reconsider their own perspectives of their expertise? That is a very different relationship than the typical authoritarian one between teacher and student. It is the difference between "I am teacher, therefore I know more than you the student," vs "Let's share our knowledge, understanding, and perspectives, as well as our ignorance, and all learn from that collaboration."

A third point that Judy makes is relative to the research that has been done on inquiry learning, specifically that “… a good deal of the research on Inquiry Learning is qualitative. In many cases those studies raise more questions than they provide answers.” Hmmm, that sounds familiar. It sounds exactly like the outcome of engaging in the cyclic nature of the inquiry process. The question is, why don’t we have better answers to those second and third generation questions?

Finally, Judy observes that “Successful use of the Inquiry Learning Process requires the instructor to use judgment, be reflective and responsive, balance classroom components effectively, and many other things that constitute being a good teacher. Oddly enough it seems to require the same things of students.” From my perspective, it is the very responses of my students to the challenges of engaging in the inquiry process, both the successes and failures, which have enhanced my own reflection about teaching and learning and affected everything that I try to do in any interaction with students. Again, I get back to the notion that my active role in engaging my students in inquiry results in me being a part of their inquiry process, and therefore collectively, collaboratively, we are all enjoying the fruits of learning through inquiry, even if we are learning different things.

Again, thanks to Judy for summarizing some of the literature in this area.

Is inquiry learning a trendy apparition or the real thing?

2008-02-15T06:39:00.000-08:00

There are many reasons to believe that Inquiry Learning is a useful and beneficial tool that positively impacts student learning. Much anecdotal information supports that premise. Reputable and widely accepted theories of student development form its foundation. Positive short-term effects are observable in the classroom. Intuitively, the Inquiry Process just makes sense.

Nevertheless, it seems reasonable--even wise-- to take a critical look at learning through inquiry. Has the impact of the Inquiry Process on student learning been documented or is it just an urban myth? In search of an answer, I turned to the available research. Fortunately, there are a number of studies that look at various effects, which should make finding an answer relatively simple. But, it turns out that documenting the effectiveness of Inquiry Learning is anything but simple.

Searching through the literature, the first thing I noticed was that people call the process by different names. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if a study is really about inquiry learning (as I understand it) or about something else. Determining whether the Inquiry Process positively impacts student learning, first depends upon our definition of it. Virginia Lee (2004) notes in her book that institutions would be wise to generate a definition of inquiry learning that is widely understood and accepted across campus. According to Lee a good working definition of inquiry learning creates a language that fosters productive discussions among disciplines.

The second thing I noticed was that no matter how you define or what you call the process, it is difficult to gage effectiveness. Are we looking for outcomes? Inquiry learning is a continuous unending process. Are we looking for content mastery? Then we better all agree on proficiency standards. Are we looking for real long-term understanding, sensitivity to the complexity of life, the ability to think critically, and so on? We can all meet again in 25 years to test that issue.

Thirdly, I noticed that a good deal of the research on Inquiry Learning is qualitative. In many cases those studies raise more questions than they provide answers. Are the findings generalizable or unique? It seems that to some degree using and evaluating Inquiry Learning is a value laden activity. Successful use of the Inquiry Learning Process requires the instructor to use judgment, be reflective and responsive, balance classroom components effectively, and many other things that constitute being a good teacher. Oddly enough it seems to require the same things of students.

All that said here is a quick and simplified survey of research findings:

· Problem-based or inquiry-based learning was developed as a tool to teach medical students (Barrows & Tamblyn, 1980). Two meta-evaluations (Albanses & Mitchell, 1993; Vernon & Blake, 1993) investigated the effectiveness of this learning technique in the medical school environment. Findings indicated that students showed better clinical problem-solving skills and were motivated by the process.
· College students believed that they developed better problem solving skills; were more active and interested (Lieux, 1996).
· Students had more positive perceptions of the learning environment, more confidence problem-solving, and were more positive about life-long learning (Woods, 1996).
· Students reported frustration, uncertainty, and discomfort with the ambiguous and open ended nature of the process (Edens, 2000).
· The inclusive character of inquiry learning benefited students at both ends of the spectrum: learning disabled (Ferretti, Macarthur, & Ojolo, 2001) and talented (Naisbett, 1997).
· One of the first tangible changes in teaching practice was in the way the instructor asked questions in the classroom (Baumfield, 2006). Instructors reported having a better understanding of students’ thinking. Better feedback on teaching. Both student and teacher self-esteem were promoted (Wilks & Emery, 1997; Zohar, 1999).
· Instructors reported a better sense of professional autonomy and stronger motivation to teach (Baumfield, Higgins, & Lin, 2002).
· Positive effects on students when learning was carefully guided (Chall, 2000; Singley & Anderson, 1989).
· Better outcomes were noted when the instructor used guidance combined with some direct instruction (Klahr and Nigam (2004).

Faculty Teaching Retreat

2008-02-02T13:23:00.002-08:00

We had a great time at the recent Annual Faculty Teaching Retreat. Peter Doolittle was excellent. One of the underlying themes that he repeatedly addressed was the need for students to be put into situations where they can not only receive information, concepts, etc, but also for them to be able to process what they are learning, observing, experiencing. As we have come to understand the inquiry cycle better, it seems that explicitly using that as a strategy for student activity and learning allows for that processing to occur, especially through the discussion and reflection components of the cycle.

In addition, Prasanta and I were extremely pleased with the turn out at our concurrent session. We gave an overview of the inquiry cycle and summarized some of the things that we feel we learned from the our learning community discussions of the fall semester. We thank all who attended that session. That gave us confidence that we are providing a learning community in which many find value.

One activity that we used was called the Seven-Fingered Hand exercise. This was an extremely successful activity in engaging the audience. We only scratched the surface of discovering what we can do with that type of activity. If you are interested in what that exercise is, see the Creative Think website.

We will be discussing these and other concepts more during the Spring semester. Come and join us.

Thursdays at 3:15-4:45, 428 Armory.

We also have started a wiki that contains some of the materials and discussion summaries from last semester of the Undergraduates Engaging in Inquiry community. This wiki, called Learning Through Reflection, Inquiry and Innovation, is a compilation of work by Walt Hurley and Judy Sunderman. More to come on that website.

Spring Semester Poster

2008-02-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

Undergraduates Engaging in Inquiry

Welcome Back

2008-01-24T16:35:00.000-08:00

We are starting a new semester of the Undergraduates Engaging in Inquiry learning community. Look for our poster and concurrent session presentation at the 2008 Annual Faculty Retreat: Using the Science of Instruction to Foster Learning, held on January 31.

Learning Community Weekly Discussions

When: Every Thursday, from February 7 through April 10

What time: Gather at 3:00 pm for refreshments, discussions 3:15 – 4:45 pm.

Where: 428 Armory

Weekly programs will include:

Nuts-n-Bolts of integrating inquiry into your courses
Learn from the Expert about how to make your strategies actually work
Critical Friends from our learning community who can provide feedback on proposals and innovative ideas

Undergraduates Engaging in Inquiry is a learning community that explores the role of inquiry in student learning and development. This community of scholars, facilitated by Walt Hurley and Prasanta Kalita (2007-2008 Distinguished Teacher Scholars), is open to all who are interested in helping their students become better learners, becoming more scholarly teachers, taking an active role in a community of like-minded learners, and sharing scholarly work with colleagues.

Drop by for conversation, sharing of ideas and experiences, scholarly discussion of inquiry and learning, and of course, refreshments.

Hope to see you there.

Thanks

2007-12-05T16:09:00.000-08:00

From Prasanta, Cheelan, Judy and Walt, thanks to everyone who supported us during this semester of stimulating discussions.

We are in the process of planning for next semester. We expect to have regular weekly meetings (probably Thursday afternoons) again to continue discussions about students and inquiry. More details on those later. We hope that you will be able to join us for those meetings.

Don't forget to register for the upcoming All Campus Teaching Retreat on January 31, 2008. See this CTE website for information and registration.

Happy Holidays.

Resources

2007-11-15T03:52:00.001-08:00

The following may be of interest to participants in the Undergraduates Engaging In Inquiry group:

Bruce Michelson mentioned IRIS as a mechanism for finding funding opportunities. IRIS has an alert service that allows faculty to establish parameters for searches. Searches can be run on demand or completed automatically with the results emailed to you. Here is a link to that site: http://iris.library.uiuc.edu/~iris/alert/
The Spellings Commission was mentioned in discussions recently. U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings established this commission to examine the future of higher education. The final report of the commission has the potential to influence higher ed policy for years to come. Basically, the Commission focused on undergraduate education determining that it should be more affordable, more accessible, more accountable, and of higher quality. That report is available for download at: http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/index.html
The Association of American Colleges and Universities has made their journal available on line. In the current issue an article called Why Teacher-Scholars Matter describes a study on the value of undergraduate research in higher education. Although it will come as no surprise to participants in UEI, the study finds that undergraduate research projects have a strong positive effect on student outcomes. The article is worth reading. Author George Kuh from Indiana University is very influential in the field of higher ed. My guess is that this article will probably renew the push for additional undergraduate research opportunities for students. The article is available at: http://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/le-fa07/le_fa07_perspectives2.cfm

Indian Professors attend UIUC and Undergraduates Engaging in Enquiry

2007-11-07T11:30:00.000-08:00

Three engineering college professors from the G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in India were on UIUC campus last week (Oct 27-Nov 5) attending a training especially designed for them by the CTE (Dr. Laura Hahn). The GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology was estabished by the University of Illinois in 1960's in the land grant pattern. Recent vist to that university by our college of ACES Dean Dr. Robert Easter has sparked new interests and collaboration - that's what brought the Indian professors to our campus. The training "Teaching Learning Methods for Engineering Faculty for Becoming Effective Teacher and Learner in Today's Educational Environment" was sponsored by the UIUC Colleges of ACES and Engineering and the Center for Teaching Excellence. The Indian professors (Dr. A.K. Swami, Dr. C. Lal, and Dr. A. Ashok) left with very high impression on UIUC's committment and dedication to student learning. They attended the Enquiry seminar on Oct 31 and participated in the discussion. Cheelan Bo-Linn and Laura Hahn will now be visiting their university in the winter break, conduct a teaching workshop and initiate discussions about establishing a Center for Teaching Excellence there.

Survey results--NSSE

2007-11-07T08:18:00.001-08:00

Here is the website for the results of the National Survey of Student Engagement http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2007_Annual_Report/ I think we've mentioned the NSSE in our inquiry group. It's the best survey of students available for actually getting at engagement and learning.
Notice that the USA Today article that's linked begins with an account of undergraduate research!
Libbie Morley

When should our students fly from the nest?

2007-10-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

On a personal level, my older son started Driver's Ed today, so the question of when kids should make decisions on their own rather than work things through with adults seems particularly salient to me. (And my personal answer to the question is that he not get full autonomy till he is self-sufficient financially.)

In any event, I note that Prasanta's and Kim's students received very little direction from their instructors on their projects, but Walt gave some rather concrete direction to his students on what they should write about in their blog. So I wonder how the rest of you think through that and, in particular, if Walt felt a need to give out some instructions because he himself was new to blogging.

Blogging and student reflection

2007-10-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

This summer I had four students who traveled to Europe to participate in our international learning program. Two of them worked with scientists on research projects at Wageningen University in Holland and two worked at the Research Centre Foulum, the major animal science research facility in Denmark. Starting prior to the students' departure and continuing throughout their travel and even after they returned, I asked each of them to submit entries to a common blog.

For example, shortly after they arrived in Europe they were asked to address the following:

"Now that you have arrived at your destination, please address the following questions in your blog:

- What did you experience during your travel that you found especially interesting? Why was it interesting?

- What did you experience during your travel that you found especially negative? Why was it negative?

- What are your initial impressions of the country you are visiting, the town you are living in, your accommodations, the people you are interacting with, or any other initial impressions that you would like to share?

- What are you most excited about in looking forward to the next several weeks? Why are you excited about that?"

Later items for reflection included questions such as:

"Identify 3 problems that you have had since leaving home. For each, describe in detail how you went about solving those problems or coming to a personal accommodation about the problem (for example, how did you use communication, creativity, persistence, dialog, negotiation, etc to resolve the problem?). Also, how has solving each problem impacted you since that time?"

This blog can be found at http://ansc-usda2007.blogspot.com/

Please feel free to look through their responses. It makes interesting reading.

Reflection and Student Learning

2007-10-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

Our approach to finding out what students have learned in our courses often boils down to testing them on whether they remember some prescribed information that we have suggested to them is important enough that they must know it (that is, remember it long enough to make it to the exam). If they do not remember it at the time of the exam, then they are penalized for their faulty memory. No excuses allowed.

The inquiry process offers an alternative means of thinking about assessment of student knowledge. How often do we assign the student a simple task such as to discuss things that they have learned from class?. This approach can be very humbling when we realize that the things they learned were not necessarily those things that we thought we were teaching.

Also, how often do we ask students to reflect on their learning, or ask them how they learned something or how that learning occurred? How often do we ask them to talk about or write about how they perceive the impact their learning has had on them, how they have changed because of their learning, or how their learning may impact them in the future? If we think about the inquiry process, reflection is a key component of success. However, it is rare to ask students to respond to reflective questions of this type, at least in science.

Over the last several years I have started having students in my courses maintain some sort of reflective portfolio. I ask them to address a series of questions periodically throughout the semester, including questions like the following (not necessarily using all of these in the same reflective assignment):

- Describe three (3) things about __[general topic]___ that you did not know at the start of this section of the course and that you know now. Write your description as if you were teaching a friend who knows nothing about this topic.

- How did you come to know these things or gain this new knowledge? Explain how your learning occurred.

- While you have learned a great deal about _______, hopefully you also appreciate that you have only scratched the surface of that subject. What aspect of ________ would you like to learn more about if you had the chance? What new questions do you have about the topic of ________? Explain why you find that especially interesting.

- What did you learn about yourself through participating in this _______ section of the course? How did you learn this about yourself?

- Learning is a very personal activity. As life-long learners, we should not take our personal learning skills for granted, but rather should be continually reassessing, refining and reflecting on those skills. From your involvement in the course to date, have you come to recognize learning skills that you feel you need to refine or improve? How might you go about making that change?

- What impact has your new knowledge had on how you think about or talk about _________ and related topics? Explain how this impact or change occurred.

Late in the semester, after having “trained” them that it is OK to respond honestly to the questions above, I ask them to complete a end-of-semester reflective assignment. Remember that this is a Lactation Biology course, and it involves a large proportion of group work and collaborative learning. In addition, we talk about concepts of learning styles, Bloom’s Taxonomy, and other aspects of learning.

Part A – what have you learned about lactation biology?:

1. What additional things have you learned during the semester about lactation biology that you did not previously realize when you started the semester?

2. Compared with your views at the beginning of the semester, describe your vision of the field of lactation biology now?

3. How have your experiences during this semester affected your view of lactation biology?

Part B – what have you learned about collaborative learning?:

4. Describe how participating in the various group activities (discussions, projects, etc) has affected the way in which you think or learn?

5. What value did you receive from partnering with other students in pursuing your learning in this course? Explain why this is of value to you.

6. How did partnering with other students affect your views on working collaboratively or in teams? Explain how this impact occurred.

Part C – what have you learned about yourself?:

7. What did you learn about yourself through participating in the various activities in this course during the semester? How did you learn this about yourself?

8. What impact has your new knowledge about yourself had on your views about learning and thinking? Explain how this impact or change occurred.

9. Earlier in the course you had identified one or more learning skills that you felt you needed to refine or improve. What have you done since that time to start the process of making that change and improving that skill(s), and have you made progress?

10. Considering your response to item #9, how will you keep up the effort to improve that skill(s) after this semester is over?

11. Would you consider a career that relates to lactation biology? In what type of such career(s) might you be interested? What type of preparation would you foresee as necessary for such a career(s)?

12. What have you learned about self-reflection as part of the learning process?

Responses to these types of reflective questions can make this whole exercise worthwhile. I learn a great deal about our students from these questions. Please use these ideas if you think they might be helpful in enhancing student learning in your courses.

Undergraduate Research in English Studies

2007-10-18T07:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a call for proposals for a collection on undergraduate research in English Studies. Although most of you are not in English, you might be interested (or surprised!) to learn that English and Writing Studies are incorporating undergraduate research. --Libbie Morley

Call for Proposals: Undergraduate Research and English Studies: Undergraduate research has been described as “the pedagogy for the 21st century.” While this phenomenon is pervasive in many fields in higher education, participation in English Studies is somewhat spotty. A paradigm shift is underway, however, with increasing attention to undergraduate research in the humanities, most notably, the creation of a new Division in the Council on Undergraduate Research (www.cur.org). <http://www.cur.org).%20/> The National Conference on Undergraduate Research (www.ncur.org<http://www.ncur.org/>) has long had a vibrant collection of presentations on literary studies but a paucity in writing studies. We invite proposals for essays for a collection on Undergraduate Research in English Studies that includes writing (e.g., composition, creative, professional, technical), rhetoric, literature, linguistics, folklore, and cultural studies. When we talk about undergraduate research, we mean primarily those students who are engaged in inquiry within their major or minor. Topics might include, but are not limited to the following: models of undergraduate research in English studies; best practices for faculty mentoring; studies of specific undergraduate research projects; community-based research and service learning; instruction in research methods, particularly in the context of the writing or English major; the role of IRB (human subjects) approval; faculty roles and rewards; diverse student populations; responsible conduct of research (ethics); issues of collaboration and authorship; impediments to undergraduate research in English Studies; venues for dissemination of research. Chapters will be in the range of 15-25 manuscript pages, including works-cited lists (and end notes, if there are any), though we are open to shorter or possibly slightly longer projects." We encourage proposals from undergraduate researchers. Proposals of 250-500 words should be submitted by February 1, 2008 to the editors, Laurie Grobman (leg8@psu.edu<mailto:leg8@psu.edu>) and Joyce Kinkead (joyce.kinkead@usu.edu<mailto:joyce.kinkead@usu.edu>).

About the editors: Laurie Grobman is co-founder and editor of Young Scholars in Writing, a journal devoted to publishing the work of undergraduate researchers (http://www.bk.psu.edu/Academics/Degrees/26830.htm?cn21); she is also the author of Multicultural Hybridity: Transforming American Literary Scholarship and Pedagogy and co-editor with the late Candace Spigelman of On Location: Theory and Practice in Classroom-Based Writing Tutoring. Joyce Kinkead is Associate Vice President for Research at Utah State University. Her publications include Valuing and Supporting Undergraduate Research and “How Writing Programs Support Undergraduate Research” in Developing & Sustaining a Research-Supportive Curriculum.

Thank you for your consideration,

Joyce

J. A. Kinkead
Associate Vice President for Research
Professor of English
1450 Old Main Hill
Old Main 162
Utah State University
Logan, UT 84322-1450
435.797.1706
435.797.1367 FAX
joyce.kinkead@usu.edu<mailto:joyce.kinkead@usu.edu>

Some short videos to view

2007-10-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

This video, made by Mike Wesch and his students at Kansas State, does a remarkably good job at conveying the problem. Perhaps we should be making a different type of video, a montage of this workshop and the projects that have been showcased, as a cure for the problem so to speak.

There is a different project on Campus, Writing with Video, and perhaps it would be good to partner with them, encouraging their students to create such a video. A well done job might create quite a bit of visibility for Students Engaging in Inquiry.

Here is another video by Mike Wesch that you might like. It got a lot of attention in the eLearning world.

Relevance and Lived Experience

2007-10-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

We often are told that what we teach should be relevant. To many, this is interpreted as a need to link newly taught content to previous content. Or, that content should be couched in terms of how it relates to the rest of our discipline. I used to teach about concepts of lactation biology. I would stand in front of class and use a cow’s udder as my example of those some of those concepts. After awhile, I realized that the large majority of my students have never seen a cow’s udder first hand, never milked a cow, and never touched a cow’s udder. Using the image of a cow’s udder to help them understand a lactation concept is about as helpful as using a word to define itself. The realization of the lack of personal knowledge (experience) about the animals that our animal sciences students are studying lead us to develop a hands-on course where students work directly with the animals. Many do learn to milk a cow. Now when they come into my upper-level course they at least have a rudimentary personal knowledge of the animal. But, to accomplish this we had to design a new course, yet another course. There must be other ways to integrate relevance.

Students also tell us that they want to know how the things we teach are relevant. Here again, we often misinterpret their request in terms of how something is relevant to the rest of the discipline of study. We must keep in mind that our undergraduates are novices in our discipline. That is why they are in our classes in the first place. As novices, they do not have a sound basis to understand the broader organization and interrelationships among the many parts of our discipline. They do not have a sound basis to define the relative importance of specific content or linkages among components of the content.

Are students asking us how our content relates to them personally when they ask us how is it relevant? That is, “What’s this got to do with me?” Our discussions about the inquiry process, specifically the ASK phase, relate to this question. If the effectiveness of purposefully employing the inquiry process in student learning is in part based on ASK (arising from the student’s lived experience), then their learning something new is most effective when it has personal meaning related to and relevant to their lived experience. Relevance of what is being taught should be couched in terms of how does that content relate to the student’s lived experience. Often that is not easy to do. How can we pull that off? Our animal handling class is a one example where the students are gaining some rudimentary lived experiences under our guidance. Those experiences could be capitalized on in other courses, assuming we were organized enough to do that. That approach probably is not applicable to all disciplines.

One of our challenges in this Faculty Learning Community is to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts underlying the inquiry process so that we may develop other effective means of accounting for our students’ lived experiences, of adding to those lived experiences (hands-on courses, research projects, community-based projects, international experiences, etc), and of capitalizing on those experiences in our own courses or in other courses in our curricula.

The Kalita Connection

2007-10-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

Those participating in the recent discussions of this Faculty Learning Community have heard several times about the outstanding accomplishments of Prasanta Kalita's students. Here is a website that talks a bit about them and their winning the EPA competition:

Illinois team is a winner in EPA competition

Congratulations Prasanta and students.

Re: On Failing, Ambiguity, and the Real World

2007-10-08T10:52:00.000-07:00

Judy - I'm responding as a economist, though I think the response likely works reasonably well for many other disciplines.

Microeconomics is a metaphor. There is a methodology in applying the metaphor correctly. It is a methodology that can be applied to many open ended and ambiguous situations. There is not applying the methodology at all and claiming to do so (a lot of people talking about cost are under the mistaken impression they are talking economics, but they don't distinguish between outlays and opportunity costs), there is applying the methodology but doing so in a poor fashion (the economic analysis is done in a low quality way with some of the inferences clearly incorrect), and then there is a correct analysis done carefully. Even with the third, however, there may be ambiguity about whether the economic model fits the situation being analyzed. People can disagree about that even with a good analysis.

So, to address your question, I think we need to teach methodology and get students to understand what is good practice in analysis according to the discipline. They need to understand that applying a discipline gives some insight into the issues they want to work on, but it won't answer every question they might have. I do think there is right and wrong in applying a discipline and students should learn a sense of taste in terms of what a good analysis looks like. This doesn't preclude ambiguity. But it does get them past the point where everything is up for grabs and any approach to answering the question is as good as any other.

On Failing, Ambiguity, and the Real World

2007-10-08T06:56:00.000-07:00

The contemporary techno-global environment tends to reward innovation along with the ability to grow, learn, and accommodate change. One of the benefits of inquiry learning is the way “floundering” prepares students for the world after college. In the real world answers are really just impermanent possibilities with a variety of potential consequences.

During college students are supposed to acquire knowledge that prepares them to be self-supporting and productive citizens, but there is no certainty that information learned today will translate into skills useful tomorrow. The ability to think, reflect and understand ourselves in relation to others and the world at large are more enduring proficiencies.

Living with ambiguity is uncomfortable. Humans tend to prefer constancy. It is reassuring to have the right answers, but living with contradiction is so much more interesting. Avid learners have an appetite for chaos. In the modern world isn’t it more useful to let students learn how to discover interesting questions rather than teach correct answers?

Financial Resources for undergraduates in inquiry..

2007-10-07T18:19:00.000-07:00

Walt asked me to put the list fo resources that was available for my undergraduates in research/ inquiry-based learning. I listed those on the board last Wednesday (10/3/07), and here it goes:
Department
College academic programs
College study abroad programs
College design council
Campus Environmental Council
Campus NSF-funded WaterCampws program
Regional Water Environment Associations
Federal grants - US-EPA, US-DOD, USDA
Private organizations
Water Environment Federation

I know finding dollars to engage undergraduares in research in some disciplines can be very challenging, however, sometimes approaching the unit heads or academic deans can help in getting those resources needed.

What we thought about inquiry

2007-10-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

Below is a list of words and phrases that our FLC associated with inquiry as of the initial weekly meeting (Sept. 19, 2007). These have been sorted across three general themes. We will see if and how our vision of inquiry changes over the semester.

Developmental:
- way of looking at the world
- intellectual development
- finding out for yourself
- making a pain of myself

Discovery:
- curiosity
- investigation
- exploration
- engagement
- research
- reflection
- observation

Questioning:
- asking questions
- new knowledge
- what, why, how
- answers
- get information
- problem solving

[Thanks, Judy for sorting these into themes.]

Alternative Approaches to Inquiry

2007-10-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

Walt - I thought it would help to push these out so we might hang our hat on a different peg, if we so choose. These are overlapping, but with different emphasis.

The Reflective Practitioner by Donald Schon - The buzzwords are knowing in action and learning in action. There is emphasis on the indiosyncrasy in the situation to which learning is applied. Thus, even if one "knows the theory" there is still art to applying the theory to the particular situation. Knowledge a la Schon is represented as an unfolding - more and more is brought to bear to match what the practitioner knows about the particular situation. The Schon approach is associated with an apprenticeship model of teaching and learning and where rather than doing experiments students design things as the way to learn. But it has also been applied to fields like psychology, where what is designed is a diagnosis of a patient.

Effortful Study, Anders Ericcson - This is associated with performance as in playing a musical instrument or a game of chess. Effortful study emphasizes doing particular tasks that are not endpoints in themselves but that produce greater understanding and the sequencing of the tasks in a way that produces rapid learning. Effortful study is associated with precocious behavior in youth and approaches to instruction such as the Suzuki Method. There is the question of whether prodigious behavior in one domain can be transferred to other domains but, not doubt, effortful study is tied to what we mean by learning to learn skills.

Process Approach to Writing - The entire idea is to emphasize writing as a means for the writer to learn. This is very much tied up with producing narrative to tie ideas together and see if the narrative "makes sense." There is a discovery process in the writing, discovery in the sense of new realizations by the writer, and that writing is done to improve the writer's understanding.

With each of these the notion of *failure* needs to be understood as should ways in which we validate success or failure. So I hope during the course of our discussion we talk about validation. For now, I'd say that a failure is a complete dead end from which the learner needs to back track to make progress. Otherwise, what we have been referring to as failure may be a useful stepping stone, even if it is not the final product.

Freedom, Failure, and Learning

2007-09-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

Two points particularly caught my attention at last Wednesday’s session. First was that many of the comments from students and from the subgroups seemed to have an underlying theme expressing the student’s excitement and engagement in being a participating member of their discipline or area of study. This was seen in comments about being given responsibility to inquire, not just given detailed instructions on how to complete an assignment. Second, was the use of the word “freedom” in several of the comments. That included the freedom to explore, to learn under their own terms, and to fail (“It is good to flounder and be confused.”).

Failure is an important part of inquiry. As a professional in my discipline, someone engaged in discovery research, the personal draw is to gain knowledge about that which is currently unknown. Achieving that knowledge most often means making mistakes and failing. I have often heard others in my general field talk about how perhaps only one in ten experiments results in the expected success. That has been my experience, too. Our best educated guesses are still only guesses. However, we also learn from our failures, often more than from our successes. This education stuff is all about learning.

If failure is part of our inquiry process in real life, then shouldn’t it be part of our students’ inquiry process? How often do we tell a student that it is OK to fail? How do we establish the learning environment that disassociates failure during inquiry from a failing grade? I think it can be done, but requires a very different way of thinking about how we evaluate learning in our students. I am sure that we will discuss this more later in the semester.

Thanks for your interest and contributions to the Learning Community. - Walt

2007-09-30T15:11:00.000-07:00

Terrific Web site. Thanks for inviting me to join. Your project is very intersting.

Kim Graber

Theory and Practice

2007-09-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

This semester I am participating in both the Undergrads Engaging in Inquiry group and the Service Learning Reading Group. Both groups provide stimulating--and sometimes challenging!--conversation and reflection. I especially enjoy listening to the participants describe the concrete assignments, projects, and activities that they do in their classes. Inspired by our readings and discussions, I have written new classroom activities, reflective diary prompts and midterm exam items. My own inquiry process will lead me to look at students' reactions to these new additions to my courses.

Definitions

2007-09-29T17:03:00.000-07:00

I'm a little hung up on definitions. A couple of years ago I found a book by accident, searching on the title --- Learning by Teaching, by Donald M. Murray. He was a journalist who wrote for the Boston Globe and college teacher of writing. In the first couple of essays he talks about writing as a discovery process and, apparently, he was one of the pioneers in teaching this approach to writing. The writer learns in composing what is on the page and in editing that content. Writing in this sense creates something new based on the information gathered, the reflection on that, and the synthesis or interweaving of different ideas that occur to the writer in the process of writing.

Do we want to call that inquiry? If we do then I'd argue further that essentially all learning motivated by curiosity is inquiry. Or do we want to narrow the definition of inquiry? It's hard to weigh in on the benefits without having the definition.

In our last session, there was a point raised by the students that it is really different from their courses working on open ended questions, the answers to which produce new knowledge. But that knowledge might be known elsewhere, only not known to those working on the questions.

Since I blog, and I do try to investigate ideas a la Murray, I can comment based on experience about the benefits of doing that sort of thing. I really can't comment intelligently about having undergrads work in a lab. That's outside my realm.

Please Post

2007-09-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

Members of the FLC, please feel free to post your comments or thoughts about the Undergraduates Engaging in Inquiry program, either related to topics discussed in the weekly sessions, or about other topics not discussed.

Please indicate your name when posting to this blog.

Good luck.

Walt

Welcome to Undergraduates Engaging in Inquiry

2007-09-29T14:06:00.000-07:00

We are establishing a faculty learning community (FLC) at the University of Illinois that is examining the topic “Undergraduates Engaging in Inquiry.” We have specifically chosen this title because it emphasizes the role of the student in inquiry, a learner-center focus, rather than the primary focus on how we as teachers should engage students through inquiry. Certainly along the way we will share ideas and models for how we can teach inquiry to students. However, our goal is to better understand the impact that engaging in inquiry has on student learning and how we can facilitate that learning.

We have identified four questions that will be the focus of discussions for this semester. These include a) what value does the undergraduate student gain by engaging in inquiry, b) what value does the instructor gain from their students engaging in inquiry, c) how can we apply what we have learned about inquiry to our classroom learning environments, and d) how can we implement, document, support, sustain, and assess the impact of students learning through inquiry?

In addition, I want to better understand how others think about undergraduates engaging in inquiry. I suspect that there will be a range of viewpoints among the FLC members. I anticipate that my own views and understanding will evolve through the semester in response to these discussions.

Other questions will arise as the semester progresses. The purpose of this blog is to provide a forum for the members of the FLC to express their thoughts on those other questions. We will try to post a different question or thought each week and encourage the FLC to respond to that.